The top-secret project involved recruiting thousands of Americans from diverse backgrounds to work on a weapon that could potentially end the war. And according to Kunetka, a flatter organizational culture contributed to their success. “Everybody was pretty much equal, [the] Nobel Prize winner and 21-year graduate of CalTech” were all able to communicate, Kunetka said. “That’s very different from the German experience [which] was strictly hierarchical.”

Also aiding America was the fact that the Nazi’s racist ideology pushed many of its modern physicians to flee to America, where they became essential components of the Manhattan Project.